Keep our guard while life shall
last, And our eternal home. OK, go back with me to Acts chapter
2. Open your Bibles to Acts chapter
2. Let's read verses 37 through
41 again, OK? Acts chapter 2. Now, when they
heard this, They were pricked in their heart. I said unto Peter
and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall
we do? And Peter said unto them, Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gifts of
the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and
to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many
as the Lord our God shall call." And with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. And then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto them
about three thousand souls. A great multitude was assembled
this day, the day of Pentecost, as at other days. This had been
going on for a while. And Peter preached to them. What
did he preach? He preached Christ. He preached
the Lord Jesus Christ. He preached the Lord Jesus Christ
crucified, risen, ascended, exalted, and sovereign over all. This was the message that the
Lord used to break or prick the hearts of three thousand people
and cause them to repent. This was the message. And be
baptized. to publicly confess Christ in a pool of water and
be added to. They didn't, you notice the last
verse, they didn't join the church. The Lord added to the church,
such as should be said, must be said. And they continued. Scripture says they continued.
From that day forward, they continued doing what they were doing, worshipping,
fellowshipping together with gladness. They were so happy to do it. And though
the numbers are far less today, far less, far less, did you notice
verse 17 with me? That struck me. It says it shall
come to pass in the last days. Nancy, that was 2,000 years ago when this happened. And he called
that the last days, when this was prophesied of Joel in the
last day, 2,000 years ago. Time must really be short, do
you reckon? Well, though the numbers are
far less than they were then. Yet God still uses this same
message, this one and only message, this same message, this same
Jesus, this same message is what God uses and what God's preachers,
just like Peter, what they preach. And this is that message which
causes people truly to repent. and confess Christ. This morning,
a person is going to confess Christ in baptism, believer's
baptism. This was the message. Not this very chapter, but same
message. It's found throughout God's work.
Now, Peter quoted Joel, chapter 2. He quoted Joel, chapter 2, which
is a prophecy of this outpouring of God's Holy Spirit in the last
day. Verse 21 is a part of Joel 2. You see that? Peter quoted this. He said, Whosoever. It shall come to pass that whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. What is that name? Call on the
name of the Lord. Well, after Peter preached Christ
crucified, buried, risen, exalted, seated on a throne, enemies about
to be made his footstool. I mean a sovereign, victorious,
seated, successful, King in whose hands our breath is and all our
way, not a pitiful Jesus standing outside our hearts. No, no, no,
no, no. Peter was preaching a sovereign Lord seated right now with us
in his hands to do with as he pleased. His enemy is going to be made
his footstool. He has some enemy. He doesn't love everyone. He
has some enemies. That's what Peter preached, didn't
he? You read it with me. He never
said a thing about God's love. He never once told everybody,
God loves you. No, sir. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, I mean
the sovereign, call for what? Lord, if you'll just heal my
finances, they're in bad shape. Lord, my marriage is a mess."
What were they calling on the Lord for? What were they convicted
of? What was it that their heart
was pricked about? Sin. Rejecting God. Rejecting His Christ. Isn't that
it? That was it. This is what the Holy Spirit
does. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. Convict of sin and righteousness and judgment.
Look at this. And there are several key words
here. All right? Several key words.
Look at verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, there was a man named Jesus
of Nazareth. Most people thought that's all
he is. His enemies, that's all they
called him, wasn't it? We know who you are. You're Jesus. Jesus
of Nazareth, a man approved of God. Here's the first thing, the first
word, approved. A man. We're not. There's nothing
about us that God approves of. Do you understand that? Most
of you do. Oh, blessed are you if you understand
that. Now. That God is not well pleased
with us at all. God looked down, the scripture
said, from heaven to see if there were any. Any. And it says they're all,
he said in Psalm 14, quoted again in Romans 3, they're all together.
There's none good. No, no, not one. None righteous.
Not one. Not one. He said they're all
together. become filthy, unprofitable. Hear these words. A man is approved,
approved of God. God said it out loud from heaven
twice. This is my beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased. Now, God never said that from
heaven about anybody, but he did about Christ. The Lord is
well pleased, why? For his righteousness. He's a
holy man. Here's a good man. This is a
good man. A righteous man. He's approved of God. A man approved
of God. Read on. It says, by miracles
and wonders and signs, Christ said this, if you don't believe
what I say, believe what I do. Nobody can do what I did, except
God be with you. Even Nicodemus admitted that. He stood before a crowd of accusers. He said, Somebody convince me
of sin. Somebody find something on me. I couldn't. Could you
do that? Could you stand before anybody? I don't know why people want
to run for public office, but they're going to dig something
up. It's there. It looked long enough. Our Lord
stood before men and devils and said, Somebody convince me of
sin. Who can say that? And we're going to stand before
God someday. Here we are. How do you want to stand? How do you stand now? How do you want God to look at
you? God looks on the heart. How do you want God to look at
you? Hide me, O my Savior, hide." God said to Moses, I'm going
to put you in the cleft of the rock. I'm going to swallow up
Cora and his sons in it. And I'm going to put you in it
and hide you. Oh, my. In Christ. In Christ. Approved. Accepted in the blood. Verse 23, more than a doctor.
Oh, this is a person. When I get to heaven, our Lord's
not going to have to look at a book. God's not going to have
to look at a book. Right there stands my Savior. Him. Verse 23. Here's another
key word. Being delivered. He's approved. He's delivered. Delivered. Now, before it says in verse
23, He was taken by wicked hands and crucified. Before that, it
says He was delivered. You remember a while back when
everybody was arguing about who killed Jesus of Nazareth? Remember
when that blasphemous movie came out, The Passion of Christ, you
know, that idolatrous movie where some sinful man tried to portray the Lord
of Glory? And everybody, every Ignorance
person was all you know. Impressed with that. Do you remember after that there
was a furor over who killed Jesus you know the Jews got all the
uproar about it. Who did. Who did kill him. Yeah. It says both Herod and Pontius
Pilate and the Jews and the Gentiles and everybody was there that
day. Yeah, they took him and they crucified him. They did,
but why? Because it pleased the Lord to
bruise him. God delivered him up or he couldn't
have been killed. He said, no man takes my life
from me. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down. God delivered
him up. You see, he's not in our hands
to do with, as we've learned. He never has been, and he never
will be. What will you do with Jesus was
asked by a man, Pilate. They couldn't do anything unless
God Almighty delivered him up. But this is the Christ of Scripture.
You understand? Well, we labor this, we preach
this every time. Because this is the Lord, this
is Christ. Why did God deliver him? He'd
been delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, or purpose of God. Delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. According to the infinite,
eternal purpose before the world began, God determined this to
happen, or it wouldn't have happened, as He has everything. This is
a God who is God. This is the God of the Bible.
I know we say that every time, but this is eternal life to know
the true God and Jesus Christ, whom he what? Sent. That means was sent with a job
to do on purpose. And here's eternal life for God
to reveal who he is, why he came, what he did, if he did it for
you, where he is now, did he do it? It all hinges on that. And if God will show you who
He is, I don't mean who men think He is, but who He is, as He is,
if God, it will strike fear in your heart. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, not the love of the Lord, the fear
of the Lord. And it will cause your heart in fear to cry out
unto Him, unto Him, repentance toward God. against thee and
thee only have I rejected you." And then God in mercy will say,
well, there's your substitute. I don't want you to cry. Then what shall
we do? Repent. Repent. Man approved, delivered, sent
by God, delivered. Why was he delivered? for our
offenses for God's people's offenses. As a substitute God delivered
him up. Yes he was taken but not until
it was delivered. Yes he was crucified but God
slew him. Yes he did. Please the Lord. God killed the lamb and he was
crucified. Verse 23 says My wicked hands crucified, slain,
cursed, made a curse for his people. Scripture says, Cursed
is everyone who hangs on a tree. Cursed, killed, slain, bloodshed. Why? Because that's what his people deserve. The soul
that sinneth must surely die, but God laid on him the iniquity
of all these God spared not his own son in
order to spare us in our substitute. Verse 24, but he didn't, and
he, the scripture says he was put in a grave, he was buried,
but verse 24, here's another word, whom God hath raised, raised,
he's approved, he's delivered, he's crucified, buried, and he's
raised. He's raised, whom God hath raised,
raised up, raised up. The angel said when they came
to look for his, to anoint his body, remember? The stone was
rolled back. The angel said, he's not here. He's risen, like he said, just
like he said. You know, everything concerning
him was written. And then he repeated it, God
said these things to us through the prophet and in his last days
unto us by his son. He said, the son of man is betrayed
into the hands of wicked man, he shall be crucified and slain,
but on the third day he shall rise again. Raised up, and you know, this
was the message. of all the way through the act
of the book of Acts. This was the message which Paul. Paul and Peter and all of them
Stephen. This was the message that they
all preach constantly. You read every message by the
apostle Paul and he'll bring this up. He'll talk about a risen
Lord. Crucified slain, but now he's
he's he's not dead. He's he's risen. What is all of the controversy
today about all this modern, modern books and so forth, trying
to uncover some secrets, some code that reveals, that proves
that the great conspiracy was such. Can you listen to me here?
Does anybody know what I'm talking about? I hate to mention these
modern things. I hate to bring it up in this
time period, but it's always been the case. It began when
the Lord was risen at first it began back there at the time
and the soldiers and the chief priest and so forth said let's
let's make this let's make this appear to be that somebody came
and take took his body stolen so this thing will spread any
further. They saw I know he wrote. And even today, there's a worldwide
conspiracy to try to disprove. Why is that important? Why is
it important if this man who was crucified and slain and put
in a grave, if he walks out of that grave three days later,
what does that mean? Paul wrote a whole chapter about
it, 1 Corinthians 15. Are you with me? What does that
mean? See, this proves everything.
If he walked out of that grave three days later after being
all the blood in his body shed, what does that mean? He's gone. That's what that means. You and I, this corruption, we'll
do just that, corrupt. God wouldn't suffer His Holy
One secretly. He's the incorruptible seed,
Nancy. He's the seed. Like Isaac. Isaac couldn't be killed. If he was, he'd have raised him. He walked out of that grave proving
that he's God. He's God. And that's what Paul preached
everywhere. Peter is now preaching that. He's not here. Proof of
who he is. Who he is. And it's proof of
where he is. He said, you can't kill me. No
man taketh my life. I lay it down on myself. I do
it on purpose. God purposed it for a purpose,
for a reason. I lay it down and I take it up
again. I'm just going to take it up
again. I'm going to walk out of that grave three days and
I'm going to put on my glorified body. the one that God gave me
before the foundation of the world, when I was the firstborn
among many brethren, the firstborn of every creature, that body
that thou hast prepared me, I'm going to put it back on and I'm
going to rise in a chariot of clouds to the throne, the right
hand of the majesty on high. I'm going to rise. Who he is
and where he is, this is proof of where he is. He said, I go,
I'm going, I'm leaving this place, but I'm coming back. It's proof of who he is it's
proof of where he is seated. Seated. He's not. Jesus is standing outside
won't you let him in he's not he's not. He's not. What does the scripture say he's
seated. Enthroned. Him, look at this,
the next word, verse thirty-two, Him being by the right hand of
God. Let's say that, Deborah. He's
right now by the right hand of God. What? Here's the next word.
Exalted. Folks. Oh my, make mention, you that
are the Lord's preachers, he said in the Psalms, make mention
that his name is exalted when you're going to talk about the
Christ of Scripture. And this is why I can't help
it. I have to holler it sometimes,
you know, all the time. Can't help it. He's exalted. You make mention. Here, see, our Christ. Our cry,
my Savior, my Lord, who is Lord, not trying to be Lord. He's not
waiting for you to make him Lord. No, no, he is Lord. My Lord and
the Lord of many in here, whom has made known to you that he
is your Lord and your God, this Lord, my Lord, is exalted. I cannot say that with enough
authority like I want to. And I can't say it too many times
for God's people to get tired of it. Can I? Why? Because this
is our salvation. This is all my hope, this is
all my peace, and my peace is that since God, no man could
kill him, if I'm in him, no man can kill me. Huh? If this is
my peace and my hope, if Christ is seated, accepted, approved,
John Davis, the scripture says we're seated
with him. Huh? Does it say that? I can't
see it, I don't know. Believe it. Scripture says, because
I live, you shall live also. And therefore, he that liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. You believe this? Linda Stoniker is not dead. That's your hope, Hannah. You'll see her again. She's right
there with him. If you believe Christ and know
Christ, you're going to see her, too. And it didn't appear what she
would be, but as he is, so is she. Oh, my, my, my, my. This ain't just religion. Calvinism This is salvation. This is reality. We're talking
about a living Lord seated on a throne right now, overlooking,
overseeing this very meeting right now. Huh? Who knows us? Who beholds us? His eyes behold.
His eyelids try the sons of men. And the Lord who chooses. There's
some people, Jenny, who called on the Lord this day. Who were
they? The ones the Lord called. They wouldn't have called had
He not called them. A remnant, Joel 2, 32, a remnant
whom the Lord our God shall call. If you know who this God is and
who this Christ is and you love him as such, he's called you by our gospel.
Yes, he has. How many love him as such? These
people in this story, it says from then on, I'm getting ahead
of myself. It says he's exalted ascended
into the clouds and thrown in glory and thrown crowned with
honor and glory. He's at God's right hand, seated,
successful, satisfied, sovereign. The fact that he rose is who
he is, what he is, what he did, what he said. It's all so, it's
all truth. He said, heaven and earth shall
pass away. Not one word of mine shall fail. Why? Because there he is. Lord and God hath made, let everybody
know this assuredly, the house of Israel done. That God hath
made this same Jesus. You don't make him Lord. God
made him Lord. Both Lord and Christ, the Savior
of his people. Hallelujah. Now when they heard
this, They've never heard it before. Whoever they are, they've
never heard it before. Whoever they are, they believe
something. They believe God, or they wouldn't be in Jerusalem
that day. Right? They were all here because they
believed God. We all believe the same God. No, we don't. No,
we don't. Did you detect any difference
in the God we believe? You do. You do. Oh, we all believe in the same
God. All these people, Teresa, were met at Jerusalem to worship
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, weren't they? Did they
know him? No. Why? Because that man wasn't
his God. Right? This is life eternal. And they didn't know God. And
they were lost until God revealed Christ, not only to them. They
didn't say, well, you've convinced us of that. Did they? Oh, I now believe. Yes, you've convinced me. I see
it pricked in their heart. Pricked of what? We've sinned
against God. We've rejected God's Son. This
is it. I've gone all my life and not
given God a thought. That's what they thought. The
40, 50, 60 year old men and women out there who thought I've gone
all my life and God who's clothed me, spared me. God kills left
and right. God kills and God makes alive.
Here the man drops right dead right beside me. Who did it?
God did it. Why didn't I do it? Because God spared me. Why? either to add to my condemnation
or to eventually reveal himself to me in mercy and grace. Oh,
let's pray that it's the latter, huh? And I've gone all my life
and God's not in all my thoughts. I'll go, you know, I'll go give God this and that
and the other just a little bit. Now, this is the sin that God
holds men and women accountable. God sent his son, his beloved
son, into this world to do that horrible, terrible thing that
he did to him for some. And men didn't deserve it. Nobody deserved it. Yet he did. And a whole bunch
of people could care less. Who gives a flip? That's what
people say when they're not interested. You see, this is more than just
indifference. Unbelief is saying, I don't care
if there is a God, and I don't care if His Son came, and I don't
care what He did, and it makes no difference to me. And God is angry. with every
day. I got it. He wrote a book, but
I don't have one and I'm not looking into it. I'm not interested.
Do you see what God's holding this generation accountable for? It ain't stealing a watermelon
like my pastor always said. It's hating his son and to not
care about him is to hate him. Has anybody ever ignored you?
Has anybody ever ignored you? What does that mean? That means
they don't care if you exist. That's right. And God convicted
these people of this very thing. That's what God convicted. They
were pricked in their hearts. Oh, that's mercy, isn't it? And they said, what are we
going to do? What shall we do? What shall we do? What does Peter
say? I wish everybody was here today. But I'll tell you who is here
is who God brought here. I've just preached a sovereign
God. And everybody in here is here because God brought you
here. That's right. A lot's cast in the lap, but
the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. He said, here's
what you do. Repent. What does that mean? That means to confess guilt. That's what repentance is. Guilt. What guilt? All of it. Whatever God says man's guilty
of, I'm guilty. Right? Sin. Sin. It's not just an action, it's
an attitude. Repent is to renounce yourself. Renounce yourself. Repentance
is to confess that I'm not only guilty of everything, I'm not
only full of all manner of sin and iniquity, but everything
about me is wrong. Everything I ever have done,
ever thought, ever done, has been wrong. I've been wrong.
Paul was a religious man. A religious man, grew up in religion,
he was devout and devoted and self-righteous. And he said,
it's all dung. Everything in my past, all my
past religion, my confession, my belief, my faith, all my works,
all of my, it's dung. What's that mean? You know what
dung means. And he said, I forget it all, I renounce it all, all
of it. I was a fifty some year old man. I renounce it all. It
amounts to nothing. What was gained to me, it was
lost time. Worthless. All my past has been
worthless. That's what repentance means.
What does repentance mean? It means fruit repentance. It
means actually, an actual true change. An actual repentance and. And you know that repent toward
God means to ask God for something or ask him for what mercy. Mercy. That's it salvation. And then he says this. Repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Every one of you. Be baptized. What's that? What's
baptism? It's a little ceremony, you know,
where we go through it and we join a church. No, sir. No, no,
no. That's not it. It's another form of repentance.
It's a confession of a person. It's to say, when a person gets
in this water, we're going to take a man in a moment, and he's
going to be baptized. You understand? He's not going
to baptize himself. Somebody's going to take him,
lay hold of him, and put him down. He's going to look pretty
good when you first see him, but when you get, when he's just
And she's humiliated and brought up looking like a wet rat. All
the facade washed away, all of our dignity washed away and all
that, to where we look like flesh. That's a form of repentance.
It's to say, when Christ was crucified, I should have been
there, I was there with him. That was me hanging there. That
was me that God should have killed me and buried me. I need to be put out of sight. Everything about me needs to
be dead, buried, and put away. And someday, God willing, it
will. Aren't you glad? Put him out of here. Get rid
of him. This body of death. I'd crucify,
go down under the water. It's a humiliating thing to say
that, but everything about me is bad. No good thing. He's going to come out of the
water. What? Alive. I'm going to leave him
down there. Nobody's ever been left down
there. Anybody who's been crucified
with Christ is raised, lives. Yeah, that's right. Yet not I. It's a new man. We don't feel
any different. He didn't say you would. He said
you are. Rise to walk in newness of life,
saying, now this is my Christ. This is the one I believe. And this is who I walk with.
from that day forward. Well, and he said this, do this
for the remission of sin. It's not, this won't remit your
sins. This won't put away sins. This is old, dirty Franklin County
water. I had to add all kind of iron
out in it to take the red out of it. It's just nasty water. It's not going to put away, can't
wash away one sin. No, no. I tell you what does.
I'd rather who? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from what sin? All sin. For the remission. Brother
Patrick, for the remission. That means the wiping of your
past is gone in Christ. It will never be brought up again.
Now, who likes that? Show me, is there a sinner in
here? Come on. Is there a sinner? Brother Henry. You don't mind me. If I can convince
you that you're an absolute sinner before God, I got good news for you, right?
It's the faithful saved. Christ came to save sinners,
not righteous people, not people just need a little help, hopeless,
helpless, damned, no good sinners. There you are, sinner. I got
good news for you. Your past is just that. I remember it no more. No more. We can't forget it. God says
I have. How? Christ put away our sin. God said it and Christ died. That's why. That's how. Too good
to be true? No, it is true. It is true. It's good, all right. The remission
of sins, they're gone, gone. And he says, you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift of the Holy Ghost, what's
that? His abiding presence. What's he going to do to you
from that day forward? Make you run around and holler and shout
and act like a blooming idiot? No! Convict you of sin. He's going to keep doing that.
This is his first work and his continual work. He's going to
keep convincing you of sin. Our ankles, if you remain convinced
that you're a sinner, you will remain convinced that Christ
is your hope. And you will keep hearing this
gospel saying, that's my gospel. I need to hear that. Would you
tell me one more time? If we ever quit being, or feeling
anyway, being convinced that we're sinners, the gospel will,
oh yeah, I believe that. When they received with gladness,
what did they receive with gladness, Brother Stan? The gospel. Tell me again. Do you remember
those Gentiles over there in Acts 16? I think it was 16. They
said to Paul and Barnabas, they said, would you come back next
Sunday and preach the same? These words, these words again. Same thing? Yes. Again and again
and again. Would you? It's only good news
continually, news to sinners. Sinners, remission of sins are
gone. And the gift of the Holy Ghost
is not only that, to convict, but to lead and guide. He said,
sin shall not have dominion over you. Isn't that good a sound?
Isn't that a good sound? Why? The Spirit of God dwells
in you. Lead the guide to restrain
you. Evil communications corrupt good manners. What about the
good spirit? We'll correct those matters.
Don't you need him? You'll receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit and he'll assure you. The gift of the Holy Spirit
is to assure you who Christ is and you're interested
in him. You need that? I do. I do. I want to be sure. I want to
be sure. Don't you? I want to be sure that I really
know the Lord. How can I be? How can I be? You can't be sure of yourself.
I'll tell you what you can be sure of. Your surety. Oh, you know, really, Peter didn't
give him anything to do. He just gave him a place to look.
Didn't he? Confess, cry, repent. That's
what a sinner can do. Repent, be baptized, confess
Christ. And the promise is to you and
your children. you and your children you promises
to you that he didn't say the promise is that that is Marcus
Philippians the fourth you said you who's you. That gladly received
his word that's who you is that that gladly received what is
said thus far this morning did you gladly receive. This make
you glad and not everybody many people get mad Many people care
less. But this is it says they that
gladly receive his word. That you know you with many other
words he said save yourself from this untoward generation. How
do you do that look in the crowd. Turn from my to serve the living
God turn renounce it all. Look to Christ alone and they
that gladly received his word what was his word Christ. What was his word saying. One
more we have one word message. Gladly receive his word oh my
it says they they were baptized. They told everyone of them what
whoever received it they were. They were. They had to. They
gladly received it, read on with me, and were added, joined to
the church, their sheep. They continued steadfastly. Continued
steadfastly, what does that mean? They kept doing what they were
doing with enthusiasm and resolute, and this is it. To whom shall
we go, Peter said. It's now not just a force of
habit, but it's what they are. Christ is their life now. They're
not going to Jerusalem because it's Pentecost or Easter. I had to say that. But they're
going to Jerusalem or they're going to here because they have
to, because it's their life now. Fear, it says, came over them.
Fear. Fear of what? Fear of God. Fear
of the Lord. Fear of missing it. Afraid to
miss it. Fear of self. I'm afraid of myself. So you know what I do? I run
to the Lord. I come here because I'm afraid
of myself. Afraid of being left to myself. Aren't you? I'll tell
you where to run. Run. Run. Run away from yourself. Brother Henry, there's only one
place you can escape yourself. Brother Henry used to say, I
used to try to run away from, you know, run away from myself
and my enemies and all that. And he said, when I got there,
I was still there. There's one place you can go. done before all these people.
You're going to see what I believe I hope is a sign of wonder. A
wonder. Only God can take someone who's
steeped in idolatry and false religion and make them renounce
it all and say, you know, everything I used to believe was wrong.
I had wronged God and had wronged Jesus. I thought I knew everything,
didn't know anything. Thought I knew all about the
Bible, couldn't quote one verse. Now I realize I know nothing,
except now I know him. True God. I'm going to renounce
it all and confess this Christ. Only God can do that. God can
do that. Wonders, it's a wonder. Go show
John again. We're going to show John again.
But dead are raised. The blind have their eyes opened.
There was a time... Mike, can I use this? You don't
mind. We're all God's people. We're
like this. I'm just using you. I'd already
picked on Henry. There was a time when I thought,
I'm not going to be able to convince... I can't convince this man of
anything. I really did. He was a fine man.
One of the finest he was. He still is. I thought, he's
one of the finest men I've ever met before. You were raised in a religion,
weren't you, Brother Mack? And as I said, you're just like many
in here. And I thought, I can't convince
him of this, but I'll tell you who did. That's a wonder. That's a wonder. You weren't blind, were you,
Brother Mack? You weren't blind. It didn't make you were, did
you? Did you jump, did you think you
were blind? Were you? Only God can make a man nod his
head. Wonders and signs were done.
See, it's still being done today. Wonders and signs. Blind are
receiving their sight, the deaf are hearing. People, you can't
get a word through. How many people have you talked
to about this gospel you can't get a word in? They're not listening
to you. They're not listening to God's word. God does. It's a wonder. It's a wonder. And said they
sold their possessions. They believed all that believed
were together. All that believed were together. They had all things common. Common
faith, common trials, common afflictions, common salvation,
common you name something. Also common afflictions. Common
every time common temptations. Here's something about every
person whom God deals with. They think when the Lord begins
to deal with them, they say, I don't deserve to be in God's
church. Of course you don't. Who does? I don't deserve and this is the
thing I hear from every single person who God deals with I'm
unworthy. I don't deserve to be in that
church. But can I sit on the back row? Well, of course, that's
where we all want to be. We all want to be. That's where
we all, the way we all came. We all want to be on the back,
because there's none worthy. No, not one. And we all want
to be back on the back row. Nobody deserves it. He's worthy. That's what this
is all about. And they contended together,
a bunch of sinners saved by grace, with gladness, singleness of
hearts, purpose, that means purpose. What are we doing here? Worshipping
God. We're not playing, we're not
observing a holiday. We're worshipping God. This is
what we do every time. We celebrate the resurrection
of Jesus Christ every Sunday we meet together, and Wednesday,
don't we? worshiping God. And praying and
sitting there, and they had favor with people. You are my favorites.
These are my favorite people on planet Earth right here. You
have favor, not only with God, but with me, for what it's worth.
For what it's worth. You're my favorites. You're my
people. God's my God, and you people
are my people. And the Lord added to the church
what such as should be saved those whom he foreknew and predestinated
before the world began and whom he did predestinated he called
by this gospel of Christ and whom he called he granted repentance
and faith in Christ and therefore justified them and whoever he
justified and baptized and glorified. That's. OK we'll stay in the same number
number forty two number forty two great old him forty to stay
in the same and wrong.